Good Neighbor Podcast: Delco
Bringing Together Local Businesses and Neighbors of Delaware County, PA (Delco"") and the surrounding Philadelphia Metro Region.
Good Neighbor Podcast: Delco
Matt Fullmer: Leading Delco And Beyond To His "Rent Anything Store"
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Matt Fullmer: Leading Delco And Beyond To His "Rent Anything Store"
What if you could make money from all those dusty items taking up space in your garage? Matt Fullmer's Rent Anything online store is already doing just that with his innovative peer-to-peer rental marketplace that's changing how we think about our stuff.
This episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast will tell you how to access exactly what you need, without the burden of ownership, by walking in online to RentAnythingStore.com, which facilitates peer-to-peer rentals of "almost anything." Listen as Good Neighbor Podcast Delco host, Bob Blaisse, interviews this (Delco) Delaware County, PA, resident to share the story behind this brilliantly simple peer-to-peer rental platform concept that connects people who have things with people who need them, but only temporarily.
Listen as Matt Fullmer tells the world how his business provides a means to rent "almost anything" you need and also how to make money from renting what you own. Matt explains, describing how his RentAnythingStore.com platform brings together what he calls "the hoarders and the minimalists" in a mutually beneficial relationship that is built on twin pillars of community and sustainability using a modern solution to consumption that feels both innovative and familiar – like borrowing from a neighbor, but with digital convenience and security.
Whether you're an individual looking to rent out items you own, or a business that has assets you can occasionally rent to others, the conversation explores how the online marketplace to "Rent Anything" works. From authentication processes ensuring user safety, to flexible pickup options and market-driven rental pricing, find out how to quickly get a rental business online to turn your rarely-used purchases into passive income by joining the sharing economy revolution.
Rent Anything
RentAnythingStore.com
610-937-3155
facebook.com/RentAnythingStores
instagram.com/rentanythingstore
--- About The Show--- Good Neighbor Podcast is a spotlight on local businesses in and around Delaware County, PA (“Delco” ) and Beyond... The executive producer and host, Bob Blaisse, is a community sponsorship advocate, business branding specialist, and publisher of several hometown magazines, including: Newtown Square Friends & Neighbors, Marple Friends & Neighbors and Newtown Edgmont Friends & Neighbors, mailed monthly to more than 12,000 homes in Western Delaware County, PA, and also available for reading online.
Welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast
Speaker 1Hello, delco. This is Michael Barkan, welcoming you to the Good Neighbor Podcast, where fans of local businesses and their neighbors come together. It's my pleasure once again to introduce my friend and neighbor, our host Bob Lacey.
Speaker 2Thank you, Michael Barkan, for that introduction and everybody, welcome to another episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast. And if you are a regular listener, you know we come from Delaware County, Pennsylvania, and I say that because we always like to abbreviate it. We're really known as DELCO and it's a big thing, it's a DELCO vibe that we have going on here in the Philadelphia area. Delaware County is the really the one of the smallest counties in 67 counties across pennsylvania but we're the um third largest in population, just in the corner of southeast pennsylvania, right above the state of delaware and east of, uh, new jersey. I should say west of new jersey. They're east towards the ocean and then we're right below the city of philadelphia, Delaware County, lovingly referred to as Delco.
Introducing Matt Fulmer and Rent Anything
Speaker 2We call the podcast Good Neighbor Podcast Delco and Beyond because we like to bring good neighbor businesses that are in Delco beyond Delco and to have everyone learn about these wonderful businesses that are great businesses in our community. And today I'm really excited the fact that we have a business that's real Delco. In fact they even like to use Delco strongly in their promotion. But it's really different. You've heard us have some e-commerce businesses before, but this is what you would call a peer-to-peer e-commerce business, resident Matt Fulmer, who is kind of the major partner in the company called Rent Anything down here in the Delco area. Matt, welcome to the Good Neighbor podcast.
Speaker 3Hi there, Bob. How are you? It's an honor to have been nominated and be on your amazing podcast. I just hope I can bring the same great energy as Michael Barkin.
Speaker 2Well, sure, he does great, but I think that if you rent anything I mean, I don't think Michael Barkin can do everything, but if you rent anything, well, there's a story there and we want to get the story out here today on the Good Neighbor Podcast. So let's start with that, matt, and we'll get to the part that you are a Delco guy and you live in Broomall and we'll find out if know a family man or whatever. But what I really want to let our listeners know, if there's a website called rent anything and I think I think it's more so, rent anything, store right your website yes.
Speaker 2Rent anything storecom. If you're listening and you want to listen while you're also looking at it online, we're going to be talking about rent anythingcom with Matt Fulmer. So Matt, tell us really how broad is Rent Anything, and is it that I can offer things to rent or can I find things to rent?
Speaker 3All great questions, Bob. So it's rentanythingstorecom. That is the website, and, yes, I mean, our catchphrase or moniker is rent almost anything right From anyone. And I say almost because you know, like you, I have friends whose mind goes in different directions and you can't rent certain things, but you can rent almost anything from anyone. The sky is the limit, though. I mean, really, this was born. This came about from a position that I had years ago, working with students who didn't have a lot of money but had things and they wanted to. It's kind of like a sharing economy type thing. So, whatever we were going to call it, it was founded on two main tenets, and they are community and sustainability, and I kind of came about during COVID, when people weren't hanging out, people weren't able to share things I mean, gosh, you have to wipe everything down, right and so for the past couple of years, my partners and I have been honing this idea and it's come to fruition, and I'm just I'm thrilled to be on this podcast.
Speaker 2Let's talk about that from a community perspective. Really, what it is it's an online community. Really, it's a peer-to-peer rental uh website, kind of not too indifferent from these peer to peer uh websites that you can, um buy things from someone, like an eBay or, um even you know, a Facebook marketplace, where we find people, um, you know, um offering things up for sale. But in this case, we have people who are offering things up for rent. And when you talk about sustainability, really what we're referring to is, um, hey, you may not need to just throw that thing out. Why don't you make some money off of it?
Community and Sustainability Focus
Speaker 2Rent it, because not everybody really wants to have a Thatcher or something in their garage, or not everybody, you know, has a kind of a motorized scooter that they need to use for a particular day or event, somewhere Different things like that tools, somewhere Different things like that tools. And, of course, you can talk about the myriad of items that are rentable that can be found at the Rent Anything store. But, matt, I think it's kind of cool that you're talking about sustainability, because really, what you're talking about is, rather than just throw it out, why not let others share it? Why not even help you fund the cost of what you bought by renting it occasionally. Tell not even help you fund the cost of what you bought by renting it occasionally. Tell us a little bit about the mindset of, first, the people who are offering things to rent at the rentanythingstorecom.
Speaker 3Sure, bob. Well, we all know sharing is caring. That's what I teach my kids. I have four boys, like you, four kids, and I think when we started this, the mindset was you have two people, you have the hoarders and the minimalists and everybody, of course, in between, but you have people who have a lot of things right. Maybe it was an impulse buy, maybe they thought they needed it to refinish their basement, and they've used it once or twice or maybe a couple of times, and it's in pristine or pretty darn good condition and it just sits there and it collects dust. We all have that thing, whether it's in your basement, garage, shed, backyard, what have you? And then you have the people who are minimalists. So I would say my wife and I God bless her, she is definitely the minimalist. Say my wife and I God bless her, she is definitely the minimalist. I would be classified more in the hoarder category in the sense that I just I got a lot of things and racked up a lot of credit card debt, probably in the process, and she really didn't, you know, and so it was sort of the inception of this idea, like let's bring these people together.
Speaker 3Another way to kind of look at this website is, well, in the very beginning, someone called it Uber for shovels. Right, you have somebody who has a car and someone who needs a ride somewhere. Uh, or maybe, even, like it's been called a dating website. Not a dating website, but you have two people who need to meet and, um, they're all vetted through our process of very, very, um, elaborate but like, but very quick process, um, where you can trust the people that you're you're renting your things out to and the people who are the recipients of those things can trust the people that you know own those things. So, again, not a, not a dating website, but you kind of get the concept.
Speaker 2Yeah, I do. It's wonderful because it's a concept that all of us can use. I mean, there's people who need to make money in a business but they can't really afford to work part-time. I've bought things from people on Facebook Facebook marketplace and I'm fascinated, when I go to pick stuff up that I ask them do you do this often? Yeah, yeah, do you make money? Yeah, I do. You know, and and you know, it's things I don't want anyway, so why not? In this case, it's just a kind of a notch above that.
How the Rental Process Works
Speaker 2There are people that are saying, no, I really like that, and maybe it's a, it's bigger, maybe it's more useful that you don't really get rid of it. I mean, I have a power washer in my house, but I I just, you know, I don't know why I never had one before, probably because I couldn't afford it. But had I had, I needed one, I would have gotten down and rented it at the home Depot. And if I can rent it from somebody in my community and they can make the money, isn't that great. So so let's talk a little bit about the people who are buyers from the rent anything storecom and um do do. Do they pay? Uh, pay a percentage of you know how much did they pay. Is it a good price, cheaper than you know? Going to the Home Depot to rent something? And of course, you can find things you can't even find at other rental places. But what I mean is, is it all done like an eBay transaction where we're using credit cards and then how's the handoff or the drop-off happen?
Speaker 3Again, all great questions that I might need a couple of hours to explain all this, but, but the shortened uh answer is that, yes, you do need a credit card. You need to uh the process that my partners, I, have used um to authenticate the user, so we know that it's not some ai generated, you know, chatbot or whatever, or or someone who you, you know. You know I'm not going to mention other marketplaces out there that you don't need to use your credit card, but we know we've all been burned by those, right, so we wanted to make sure that safety right in many ways, like putting your credit card out there but also not having to list your address, right, so you can. We have many different options. As far as pickup is concerned, I'll start with that answer, and that could be, you know, at that person's house, either side of the transaction, you know, in a public place, I believe. Yeah, we have shipping now available, if you know, if need be.
Speaker 3But the three main ones are like hey, listen, just like the other marketplaces, I'm going to meet someone, especially if it's a bigger item, right? If it's a, let's say, a snowblower and you have a sedan, maybe it doesn't fit in there, so you need someone to drive that over to your house. In terms of what you're renting it out for, we vet that. But people, let's be honest, you're not going to rent something out for more than what you could buy it for right. So if a tent costs, let's say, $100, and the person who owns that tent is gonna list it for 90 bucks or 110, whatever chances are, the market is gonna dictate oh wait, I can just go out and buy that 100. And that's also a mindset that we want people to understand.
Speaker 3Yes, it's about sustainability, but other people have come to wait. Can I start my own free store online? I know there's a big need for, let's say, baby gear, baby gear rentals down the shore, especially during you know, we're coming into the summer months. That's huge, right. I have four kids and we used to take two cars down the shore. What if there's an option down there whereby you know someone had listed all of their items let's say they live in Sea Isle or Cape May or where have you they can list all those items on the site and be sort of the Sea Isle or Jersey Shore representative, so that people don't have to take a second car. Or there's what were they? Turtles, or the, the toolie, whatever things on?
Speaker 2top Rooftop storage. Yeah, no, this is wonderful, my gosh we have a lot of no.
Speaker 3This is wonderful. My gosh called Delco Party Rentals sort of a made up name, but we love Delco and beyond and we've partnered with, you know, folks who have established businesses who wanted to use our site as marketing. That's awesome. Like we come one, come all. All are welcome and yeah, it could be one item or it could be thousands of items.
Speaker 2So if I was someone that had, you know, a half dozen items that I thought, hey, this is marketable. I'm never going to sell them, but I'm, I'm, I have them. I could kind of create you know Bob's store in a way and have a kind of my items listed at rent anything storecom, the way that you know you see in other websites have my own page. It's amazing, Matt, because this is everybody listening. You've got to go to this website. We're talking to the local founder here of Rent Anything and it's really, as the name says, rent really almost anything that you need and make money too on what you own. You can do that locally now on a major website that is across North America.
Business Origin and Local Impact
Speaker 2Matt is the local person in the Delaware County area and beyond that is able to kind of promote this website and bring renters and rentees together in a peer-to-peer marketplace. You know, if you want to talk to Matt I think he's Matt can I give out your phone number? Absolutely, let me give you Matt Fulmer. His phone number is 610-937-3155. And if you'd like to email Matt, if it's easier for you to do that, it's as it sounds mattfulmer, f-u-l-l-m-e-r at gmailcom. Now, matt is the local guy here in the Pennsylvania area. Matt, you and your partners you mentioned. So you're not the founder, but you're one of the people that is a part of a larger group that really came together. At what year? How old is Rent Anything Store?
Speaker 3Rent Anything Store. Great question is about two years old, so I had started about two years ago after I had received my MBA from St Joe's university. I'm a proud Hawk and also wildcat wild Hawk here but I started broom all incom, so it was broom all like all in, and then I met these amazing partners who were, you know, much smarter and had more business savvy or better looking than me. So we all teamed up together and, uh, they had bought the domain rentanythingstorecom and, uh, we hit the ground running and, honestly, the biggest ask right now. So I think about this in terms of and this is how they helped me understand it too really, we're putting the cart before the horse, or we did at least a year and a half ago when we started this, by saying people go online and rent things out.
Speaker 3Well, let's just say you went into a store, a grocery store, let's say during COVID times, and you had one roll of toilet paper or what have you. You don't see that anymore. But that's sort of what we're looking at our marketplace like. We need listings, we need items, so we need people to sort of list those items. Yes, also rent those out, but the listings sort of come before the rentals, if that makes sense. So again, listing is completely free. If you, if you can go and do inventory, we I could even be your inventory specialist come to you and help you understand how to list things and take pictures so that it pops and you know, sizzles, whatever.
Speaker 2Hey, I got it quick. I, while we were doing this, I looked at the website and everybody go to go to the website and look at it, because you'll be inspired when you see, wow, look at all that stuff, I'd like to have some of that stuff, but they want to just rent it. Oh, I get it. Yeah, well, what do I have that I could rent? And you will start to think of things that maybe could be making money for you occasionally while they're out of your garage temporarily as you're renting it or whatever. And it's not just things like that would be in a garage, it could be even furniture or all kinds of things.
Closing Thoughts and Contact Information
Speaker 2I've seen all kinds of things in that rentanythingstorecom, and how wonderful it is that one of the partners in Rent Anything, uh, is really a Delco guy, matt Fulmer. Um, thank you very much for being on the good neighbor podcast today. Truly, rent anything is a good neighbor business and we're real proud to have it in the in the Delaware County Delco community a real Delco guy bringing it to us and everybody, everybody that's listening anywhere in the U? S or beyond, or beyond. Go and check out rentanythingstorecom and you'll be surprised. Matt, thanks for being a guest here today on the Good Neighbor Podcast.
Speaker 3Bob, you're the man. Thank you so much for having me on the podcast.
Speaker 1Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast hosted by Bob Lacey. This is Michael Barkan inviting everyone to get on the Good Neighbor team. Nominate your favorite local business to be featured on an upcoming episode by going to gnpdelcocom or by calling Bob at 610-557-3745.